Kurdish journalist given 138 years in prison in Turkey

New York, January 10, 2010--The Committee to Protect Journalists is outraged by the conviction and outlandish sentencing of Emine Demir, the former editorial manager of the Kurdish-language daily Azadiya Welat. Demir was given 138 years in prison in connection with dozens of articles in the paper. CPJ called today for Turkish authoritiesto overturn the sentence on appeal and end the persecution of journalists working for Azadiya Welat, the only Kurdish daily in Turkey.

A Diyarbakir criminal court sentenced
Demir on December 30 to a year and a half per 84 separate counts of "spreading
propaganda" for the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), according to local
press freedom group Bia. Additionally, the court sentenced her to12 years "for
acting on behalf of a terrorist organization." The news stories mainly covered
Kurdish rights, according to Serkan Akbas, a lawyer from Diyarbakir who is familiar
with the case. An arrest warrant was issued for Demir, who did not attend the
court hearing but was represented by her lawyer, Servet Ozen. Ozen said that
Demir did not act on instructions from the PKK, the Anatolia News Agency reported. He has appealed
the sentence.

"We call on the appealscourt to overturn Emine Demir's outrageous
sentence on appeal," said Mohamed Abdel Dayem, CPJ's Middle East and North
Africa program coordinator. "The Turkish authorities must stop punishing
journalists who report on Kurdish issues--journalism must not be considered a
crime."

On May 13, Verdat Kurşun, the former
editor-in-chief of Azadiya Welat,
was sentenced to 166 years
and six months in prison for spreading "propaganda on behalf of the terrorist
organization" and "committing crimes on behalf of the organization," according
to the Dogan News Agency.Ozan Kilinc,
also a former editor-in-chief of the paper, was charged with spreading
propaganda of the outlawed PKK and sentenced to 21 years in prison. Both Kurşun
and Kilinc are being held in Diyarbakir prison.

The government's treatment of the
country's 14 million ethnic Kurds, most living in the east and southeast, has
long been a focus of international criticism and domestic sensitivity. Forcibly
assimilated into Turkish society in the 1930s, ethnic Kurds have sought greater
political, linguistic, and cultural rights through both peaceful and armed
means.

"The state is sending a clear message: They
are not going to tolerate publishing in the Kurdish language," Akbas said.

In December, the European Union
criticized Turkey's press freedom record in an annual report on the country's
progress to join the bloc. "Open and free debate
has continued and expanded. However, prosecutions and convictions of journalists,
writers, publishers, and politicians for the expression of nonviolent opinions
has continued," according to the report.